Frederick George "Rick" Wilson (born November 21, 1963) is an American political strategist, media consultant, and author based in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. A former member of the Republican Party, he has produced televised political commercials for

governors A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

candidates,

Super PAC Independent expenditure-only political action committees, better known as super PACs, are a type of political action committee (PAC) in the United States. Unlike traditional PACs, super PACs are legally allowed to fundraise unlimited amounts of m ...

s, and corporations. Wilson was a frequent guest on political panel shows during the

2016 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2016. The Republican Party (United States), Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana Governor, Indiana governor Mike P ...

, where he denounced

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

and his supporters. He was later a strategist for the Evan McMullin presidential campaign. Since Trump's first election as president, Wilson has continued to be a conservative Trump critic, authoring two books: ''Everything Trump Touches Dies'' (2018) and ''Running Against the Devil'' (2020).

Early life and education

Rick Wilson was born in

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, the son of an

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certif ...

and a

housewife A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which may include Parenting, caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; Sew ...

. According to Wilson, his parents were both "liberal Democrats" who later became Republicans. Wilson attended

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

Career

Wilson entered the political arena by campaigning for

Connie Mack Cornelius McGillicuddy (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956), better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and team owner. Mack holds records for the most wins (3,731), losses (3,948), ties (76), and ga ...

during the 1988 Florida Senate election. Later, he served on the

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

campaign as Florida field director. Wilson played a significant role in the 2002 United States Senate election in Georgia, in which

Saxby Chambliss Clarence Saxby Chambliss (; born November 10, 1943) is an American lawyer and retired politician who was a United States Senate, United States Senator from Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia from 2003 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party (Unite ...

was facing Democratic Party Senator

Max Cleland Joseph Maxwell Cleland (August 24, 1942 – November 9, 2021) was an American politician from Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was a disabled United States Army, U.S. Army vete ...

, a disabled Vietnam veteran and recipient of the

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against a ...

. Wilson helped create an ad that criticized Cleland, while also tying him to

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...

and

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

. The ad appeared to question Cleland's patriotism. In an interview with ''

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

'', Wilson stated that he thought that "DHS epartment of Homeland Securitywas on the front line against Osama bin Laden". As Wilson reflected in 2016, "The Cleland ad was powerful because it went to his strengths ..Everyone assumed Cleland was immune to critiques on national security issues. ..they didn't calculate that I have no moral center when it comes to political ads, and I will destroy the innocent and the guilty". Following Cleland's death in 2021, Wilson received criticism from journalists such as

Glenn Greenwald Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author, and former lawyer. In 1996, Greenwald founded a law firm concentrating on First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment litigation. He began blo ...

and Charlie Pierce. In 2012, Wilson posted to Instagram an image of a cooler emblazoned with a Confederate battle flag and the words "The South Shall Rise Again", prompting allegations of racism. After public backlash, Wilson eventually deleted the post. It resurfaced in 2020 while The Lincoln Project was airing television ads attacking the public display of that flag. He had left the Republican Party following the

, and in late 2019, co-founded

The Lincoln Project The Lincoln Project is an American political action committee (PAC) founded in December 2019 by moderate conservatives and former Republican Party members who oppose U.S. President Donald Trump and Trumpism. During the 2020 presidential e ...

, a

organized by then-current and former Republicans opposed to and working to prevent the re-election of

in the

2020 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...

. In January 2020, Wilson appeared alongside CNN anchor Don Lemon and CNN contributor Wajahat Ali in which they discussed an exchange between United States Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo Michael Richard Pompeo (; born December 30, 1963) is an American retired politician who served in the First presidency of Donald Trump#Administration, first administration of Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) fr ...

and NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly. During this segment, Wilson made comments about Trump supporters, stating they were "part of the credulous boomer rube demo". He employed the tone of

Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, primarily by White Southerners and increasingly concentrated in more rural areas ...

in the segment for emphasis. Wilson has been known to use extremely crude language and generalizations, such as, when criticizing supporters of Donald Trump during an interview with MSNBC leading up to the 2016 presidential election, he called them "childless single men who masturbate to anime". In June 2020, Wilson tweeted a response to a 2012

Domino's Pizza Domino's Pizza, Inc., commonly referred to as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware General Corporation Law, Delaware-domiciled and headquartered ...

tweet thanking

White House Press Secretary The White House press secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the executive branch of the United States federal government, especially with regard to the president, senior aides and ...

Kayleigh McEnany, then a college student, for her opinion that Domino's pizza was superior to pizza from New York. In his tweet, Wilson declared, "You just killed your brand." This later prompted a response from Domino's Pizza's official Twitter account, saying "Welp. It's unfortunate that thanking a customer for a compliment back in 2012 would be viewed as political. Guess that's 2020 for ya." According to ''

The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. It was founded by Nicholas White in 2011, and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown newsp ...

'', "Domino's response immediately went viral", however, they credited Wilson for not deleting the tweet "despite the unrelenting onslaught of mockery" directed at him.

Media

Wilson has written numerous opinion and analysis columns for publications such as ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

'', ''

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...

'', ''The

New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

'', '' The Federalist'', ''The Independent Journal Review'', and ''

Ricochet A ricochet ( ; ) is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost ...

'', and he is a frequent guest on various cable and network news outlets. In 2018, Wilson released his first book, ''Everything Trump Touches Dies'', in which he laments the re-alignment of the Republican Party behind Trump. The book reached number one on the ''New York Times'' nonfiction bestseller list for a week. An

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

read by Wilson was released alongside the print version. Wilson's second book, entitled ''Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America from Trump – and Democrats from Themselves'', was published in January 2020. Since 2020, Wilson and fellow ''The Daily Beast'' contributor Molly Jong-Fast have been the hosts of the podcast ''The New Abnormal''. In October 2022, Wilson launched a new podcast entitled ''The Enemies List'', named after Richard Nixon's famous list of political enemies. Also in 2022, Wilson joined the board of directors of VoteRiders, an American non-partisan,

501(c)(3) nonprofit organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 5 ...

whose mission is to ensure that all U.S. citizens over 18 years of age are able to exercise their right to vote.

Personal life

Wilson lives in

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Fl ...

. He has two children.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Rick 1963 births American political consultants Florida independents Florida Republicans George Washington University alumni Living people American founders Aviators from Florida Never Trump movement